The youngest in a family of acrobats known as the "Flying Graysons," Dick watches a mafia boss kill his parents in order to extort money from the circus that employed them. Bruce Wayne, secretly the superhero Batman, takes him in as his legal ward, retconned in some cases as his adopted son, and eventually as his crime-fighting partner, Robin. He is written out as many authors as the first son of Batman.Throughout Dick's adolescence, Batman and Robin are inseparable. However, as Dick grows older and spends more time as the leader of the Teen Titans, he retires as Robin and takes on his own superhero identity as Nightwing to assert his independence (others would fill in as Robin). His Nightwing persona was created by writer Marv Wolfman and artist George Pérez, and first appeared in Tales of the Teen Titans #44 (July 1984). As Nightwing, Dick leads the Teen Titans and later the Outsiders. Following the events of the Zero Hour miniseries, he temporarily replaces Bruce Wayne as Batman, beginning in Robin #0 (October 1994) and extending throughout the Batman: Prodigal storyline. In an eponymous series, launched in 1996 and continuing until 2009, he becomes the protector of Blüdhaven, Gotham's economically troubled neighboring city. Following the destruction of Blüdhaven, at the command of Deathstroke, Nightwing relocates to New York. Following Batman: Knightfall, Dick Grayson takes up the mantle of Batman as he considers himself to be Bruce Wayne's prodigal son.